Green Building Forum - Energy consumption meter

Energy consumption meter

revor — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:25:22 +0000

Anyone used a plugin meter that I can check out some of my appliances that they can recommend. A number of outlets sell the same brand but have in the main poor reviews. I have got a fair idea from my smart meter by switching on when consumption elsewhere is small. Not convenient to switch everything else off. That is telling me my TV is consuming 140/150 W
whereas the energy "certificate" says it is 111 w. The label on the back of the TV says 347W bit puzzling but maybe that may be to cover other stuff one may plug in and take power off the TV.

Energy consumption meter

djh — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 16:20:21 +0000

I use the Kasa or Tapo devices from TP-Link. They seem to work fine. They seem to be very similar but have slightly different apps. I don't understand why they have two ranges. I have one previous-generation Kasa HS110 unit that I can control remotely from a script. I haven't tried with the current P110 and KP115; I just use them with the app.

Energy consumption meter

Peter_in_Hungary — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 16:30:28 +0000

I got a no name one from one of the supermarkets several years ago and I've had no problems. I've not tested it to show accuracy but for my purposes extreme accuracy is not needed. I use it to check things like fridges and freezers to check performance e.g. daily hours run and consumption, consumption of TVs and lap tops on stand by etc.
So for my needs a cheapo no name unit does the job. As long as any inaccuracy is consistent then comparisons can be made.

Are you looking for an indication of what is happening or do you need accuracy for billing?

Energy consumption meter

revor — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 17:21:13 +0000

Posted By: djhI use the Kasa or Tapo devices from TP-Link.

Thanks for that will look into the TP ones I recently extended my wifi with TP external sender and installed a Tapo camera and was impressed.

Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryAre you looking for an indication of what is happening or do you need accuracy for billing?

Just wanted to check out if the consumption is correct as am suspicious the TV is misquoted. Also have a portable battery rechargeable station and wanted to check that out as well. Either that is not producing the W/h quoted or the TV is using more than the what is on the spec.

The first check using the smart meter would suggest the TV is consuming more than advertised.

Energy consumption meter

philedge — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:08:24 +0000

We've got an Energenie unit that seems OK. Don't know how accurate the energy consumption readings are but the voltage display is pretty accurate compared to a Fluke multimeter

If you're after accuracy, you can get a non smart digital meter off ebay for under £20 and wire it in the middle of a short extension lead to run your appliances through the meter.

Energy consumption meter

revor — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 15:02:20 +0000

I got an Energenie unit in the end it is what I could get local. Not very intuitive to use and instructions could be better. Does not give me enough time to get to press the next button!
However got to read watts very quickly and does show something is up with the TV as it measures in real time.
Could see watts varying pretty quickly up and down between 140W and 200W should be 111. Have an identical TV but smaller size that reads constant 65W should be 65W. I have had instances but not very often of the TV switching itself off for up to 1min at a time then restarting so wonder if that might be linked to an overcurrent protection within. Still under warranty so will raise as an issue.

Energy consumption meter

revor — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 09:12:25 +0000

Posted By: djhI use the Kasa or Tapo devices from TP-Link. They seem to work fine. They seem to be very similar but have slightly different apps. I don't understand why they have two ranges. I have one previous-generation Kasa HS110 unit that I can control remotely from a script. I haven't tried with the current P110 and KP115; I just use them with the app.

Does your Tapo devices allow you to graph the data v's time so that one can see the extent of the variation. Not clear from the spec if it has this feature. Was watching the display last night and was varying from 80 to 210 but mainly hovering around the 160W

Energy consumption meter

djh — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:24:02 +0000

The Tapo app lets you graph the power as a line. It shows energy as daily (or monthly etc) bars. The Kasa app doesn't, AFAICT. Wit the HS110 my script can access the data and I can graph whatever I like; usually using OpenEnergyMonitor.

Energy consumption meter

revor — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 18:22:27 +0000

Just to close off this thread was prompted by a technical help line to look in the TV menu for energy saving under settings, and in there found a range of power levels (about 6), our TV was set on auto, choosing an actual level darkens the picture saving energy. Did not know it was there. I observed during my tests that a bright beach scene the wattage reached 250 W whilst a night scene with mainly black was 80W. A newsreader in a studio was 140 to 150 W I posted a similar question on a forum dedicated to our make of TV and nobody suggested that the "problem" was the energy saving setting. So learnt something about measuring Wattage and that TV's can vary their power consumption according to the setting and what scene is being broadcast.

Energy consumption meter

Simon Still — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 14:28:35 +0000

Posted By: revorJust to close off this thread was prompted by a technical help line to look in the TV menu for energy saving under settings, and in there found a range of power levels (about 6), our TV was set on auto, choosing an actual level darkens the picture saving energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Upl31Mykrc

if you're interested this will explain why. Early LCD sets just had fluro tubes behind the screen = constant power consumption. Modern ones have variable lighting and local dimming depending on the scene. I'm guessing the energy efficiency settings limit the ultimate brightness level (auto probably based on ambient light in the room)

The latest OLED sets don't have backlights - the light is coming from the individual LEDS providing the picture so again will vary.

Energy consumption meter

revor — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 10:13:41 +0000

Posted By: Simon Stillhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Upl31Mykrc

Thanks Simon good explanation video (apart from advert at end!)